Sick.

I’ve spent the last 2 days in bed, my tonsils are the size of golf balls and I can’t sleep for long without waking up coughing. Needless to say, I didn’t get myself together for the Ramblings and Photos scavenger hunt. I’ll still be checking out everyone else’s entries though!

So since I have no new photos to share, I’m posting my photos from a wildlife park I went to a couple of months ago. I didn’t share them at the time because I was at my childhood home in the middle of nowhere, and the internet was painfully slow. This is pretty photo heavy, but everyone loves animals, right?

Look at that gorgeous plumage. When we were leaving, after my camera battery had died, he started wooing a lady hen. It was so impressive to see him shimmer and flip his amazing tail around. I was kicking myself for not charging my battery before we left home.

The meerkats are a new attraction at the park. It’s nearly all Aussie animals except these guys, and a few monkeys. Meerkats are always to entertaining to watch, I love how in the second photo two of them are using a third one as a pillow.

Every wildlife parks needs an albino animal.

That’s my little brother’s head. I use the term ‘little’ lightly, I really should start calling him my younger brother since he’s a head and a half taller than me.

The Grampians make an awesome backdrop.

I’m annoyed that I couldn’t get the birds in focus, they kept flitting around. But I still wanted to show the amazing colouring of the dominant male. I always used to think that the little brown wrens were his wives, but my Mum shattered my illusion when she told me recently that they are his sons. He kicks his daughters out and just keeps one wife. The sons help raise the next generation.

The wildlife park have just started a breeding program for the Tassie Devils. They are are only found in Tasmania and are quickly disappearing due to a facial cancer that is spread between animals when they fight over food. It causes huge painful tumours on their faces, and they die from starvation when they can no longer feed. It’s so tragic, it would be awful to lose such a unique animal, especially after humans caused the extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger. Many zoos and wildlife parks on the mainland are now starting up breeding programs to ensure their survival.

This little guy was my favourite animal, he ate the food pellets out of my hand very sweetly. He’s a brush-tailed possum, I have a soft spot for them because they used lived in my roof when I was a kid. I would feed them bits of apple and stroke their tails.

This is where we had lunch. I haven’t seen the river so full of water very often.

A gorgeous background for lunching.

And a gorgeous friend to lunch with.